The first season of plays will not be announced until April 2013. Future productions are likely to include works by Jacobean dramatists such as Thomas Middleton (The Changeling) and John Webster (The Duchess of Malfi).

Plays in the indoor venue will run from October to April, with other events over the summer, such as early chamber music and opera.

Dromgoole said there would be "a range of ticket prices" with prices starting at £10 for standing tickets.

He said that the performances would be "largely, if not entirely, candle-lit".

Oliver Heywood, the theatre's senior architect, revealed that one of the key challenges had been "getting the London Fire Brigade to agree to the use of up to 100 candles in a dark wooden theatre".

Professor Martin White, a leading scholar in theatre lighting, said health and safety officers were "enthusiastic" about the project.

He said that a system for controlling the candles was built into the structure of Jacobean plays.

Construction for the theatre is under way, with the first play set for January 2014

"The plays are divided into acts to enable the company to manage the candles, so they can be trimmed or replaced as part of the rhythm of the performance," he said.

Dromgoole added: "We've got a good [safety] record because we were granted the right to build the first thatched roof [in London] since the Great Fire of London, so they've made a special exception for us before."

The design of the theatre is based on a series of drawings found at Worcester College Oxford in the 1960s, believed to be the earliest set of designs for an English theatre in existence.

Marcus Coles, the new theatre's fundraising ambassador, said: "Entering this timber hand-crafted candle-lit intimate space will be like tripping into the 1600s."